He licks his blade clean and eyeballs my naked body. He grabs his growing erection through his pants and leers at me while stroking himself. I raise my chin, refusing to show him any more fear.
My boys will come for me.
"Little dolly wants more?" he asks as he stalks up to me. He traces the knife down my sternum and digs it in just above my belly button. Its excruciating, but I won't give him the satisfaction of another scream.
"You're going to regret this," I seethe. He laughs and slaps me.
"No more talking!" he shouts. I feel my lip split and I glare up at him as I press my tongue against the wound to stem the blood.
"Oh," I taunt, "can't handle your little dolly having a backbone?" I need him to lose a little bit more of his control so that he won't see the trap until it's too late. In my head, I borrow one of Gabriel's phrases and feel a fire that reminds me of Victor in my eyes.
Bring it.
***
Echo was amazing. The District Attorney already loves her. She has kept detailed enough notes that he assures us that she will be his star witness. I could have kissed her when she told him about her conditions to testifying.
"I won't do it unless you revoke your protection on the Sorensens...you know, Karl Thompson is almost as bad as Salvatore Ferriola. He bought one of the girls that I had been kept with. Willow something. He's a monster too, and I won't be a part of this unless he is prosecuted with the rest of them."
The D.A.'s eyes went wide and he stuttered for a minute. The Federal Prosecutor, who was on speaker with us spoke up, "Done. He's a slimy bastard and I've always felt dirty dealing with him. From the moment you sign the paperwork, he will be on his own." I could tell that Jen wanted to jump and do a happy dance, but we all keep our composure until the end of the meeting.
As we are finishing up Echo adds, "And I want my mother with me until she passes. We've been apart for too long." He nods at her and we turn to leave.
I lean into her as we're leaving and whisper, "We're going to keep you safe, and I will personally make sure that Viv stays with you. You're family now, and us Academy gals take care of what is ours." She smiles and hugs me.
My team huddles in on us and Rosie says, "Girls, I think that this is the start of something beautiful."
***
"Mr. Morgan, what is the status of our preparations?" I ask him as I pull up to our final destination.
His hands fly across the keyboards of three different laptops in the back seat, and he says, "I haven't had time to finish wiring the front entrance. Someone will have to trigger it manually. Other than that, we're ready." Mr. Taylor yanks open the door and storms into our control room, while his older brother and Mr. Korba help Mr. Morgan bring in the rest of the equipment.
"I can trigger the front barricades," Mr. Korba says as he sets down the last computer. "Just tell me what I need to do, Vic."
Mr. Morgan darts under the desk to connect it to the others and suggests, "North and Luke should go in before you lock it, Silas, and Mr. B, you should take the back entrance at the same time." He crawls out from underneath and begins pulling up feeds. "Shit! He's already in there. Sang is -" His voice cuts out and I lean over to see Miss Sorensen nude and bleeding. She's looking up at Volto defiantly and-
"Did Sang Baby just spit at the fucker?" Mr. Taylor shouts. I feel pride burning in my chest and rage pounding in my veins. She is spectacular, and he will be made to pay.
"Of course she did, North. Aggele mou is full of fire." Mr. Korba holds his friend back from punching the monitor and I can't help but want to throw a few of my own.
I look to Mr. Morgan. "Can you be our eyes and maintain operations for us? The others will be here soon, but I don't think we can afford to wait." I glance over to see Miss Sorensen sitting rigid as Volto does something with his knife along her arm, causing blood to drip down and off of her fingertips. He nods and tosses us each an earbud.
"Go. I've got you. Get her out of there and I'll trigger the gas."
I stare at him and order, "As soon as the room is sealed, Mr. Morgan, activate the gas. I don't care if we're in there with him. It's only temporary, and he needs to be taken down." The others agree with me and we set off.
Hang on Miss Sorensen, the cavalry is coming.
***
I can't believe we let him get past us! I punch the wall of the motel and grunt at the impact.
"Mother fucker! I thought he was taking a shit in the god-damned bathroom. How the hell did he see us?" Gabe keeps cussing and I start to pace.
"I don't know!" I throw back at him. We've been trying to contact someone on the team for almost twenty minutes. Gabe finally went in to check on what was going on and found the restroom empty, and the newspaper that had "better luck next time" scrawled across it in bold lettering.
My phone buzzes and I pick it up immediately. "It's about damn time!" I holler into the speaker. "He gave us the slip and none of you were answering!"
"He took Sang," Kota wheezes into the phone. "He caught us off guard and took her from bed. Doc and I'll be there in just a minute. Mr. B and the others are tracking him down." He coughs and hangs up on me. What the hell is wrong with him? Gabe is still swearing up a storm behind me.
"Shut up!" I shout. "Doc'll be here any minute, and something is wrong! Volto took Sang!" I punch the wall again and huff, "I'll be waiting outside." I grab my jacket and slam through the door. Gabe meets me out front a less than a minute later with the bag of electronics, glaring at me. I feel bad for leaving him to pack up alone, but I was a hair's breadth away from kicking his ass and it's not his fault.
"What the fuck to you mean 'He took Sang'?" He pushes me hard enough that I stumble backward. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?" He grabs the front of my shirt and starts shaking me.
"I don't know what the hell I mean, Gabe!" I yell back at him. I shove his hand off of me and start to pace. "That's all Kota said before hanging up on me! He sounded like crap too! I don't know what's going on and I'm about to lose my shit, Gabe! We'll find out together in a moment when they get here!"
Doc's Honda pulls up and we both jump into the back. Kota isn't moving and I notice that his left arm is in a sling.
"What happened to Kota?" I demand. He just moans and tips his head back.
"Volto stabbed him, Nathan." Doc answers sharply. "I've given him some pretty heavy pain meds to help until I can get him to the hospital. Right now, Owen wants us to stick together." He glances over his shoulder at us and then pulls out of the parking lot. Kota groans as we jump the curb and I reach a hand out to steady him. "Gabriel, call Axel Toma. Nathan, call Dr. Roberts. Tell them we need their teams to help at the warehouse immediately. We'll pay up whatever they ask, but right now we need them."
Damn it!
We do as instructed and I look back to my oldest friend. Kota better be alright, or I'm going to end up killing someone.
***
I see Mr. Blackbourne over Volto's shoulder. The door opens silently. He sneaks in and he uses his hands to tell me that Luke and North are coming from the other side. I give him a slight nod to let him know that I understand. I swallow the smile threatening to show. I knew they'd save me.
"What's your real name, Volto?" I ask, trying to distract him further. "It's probably something boring like Ed or Tom, right?" I see a spark of irritation and I push it. "Oh, I know, it's like that old song. Your parents wanted a girl so they named you Sue? Jenny? Betsy?" He fumes and punches me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me. "That's it?" I gasp, "Betsy?" I take a breath. "Is that why you like to play with dolly's? Yeah, I'd probably go by a pseudonym too. But something cooler than some stupid Italian mask. Like Owen, or North, or Lucian." I smirk at him and he stabs his knife into my thigh with a roar.
North bellows incoherently out from behind a stack of crates and tackles him from the side, launching them across the space. I hear the sounds of fists meeting flesh and a crack. Only Volto comes running back towards the blade that he left in my leg, and I pray that North is okay.
Luke and Mr. Blackbourne both intercept him before he gets to me, and they are all tumbling around so quickly that I can barely see what's happening. They're back to the far side of the room when Luke goes flying and lands in a heap on top of something that shatters like glass. He's not moving and I feel a scream lodge in my throat when I see blood trickle down his temple. The only one still fighting is Mr. Blackbourne and he is looking at Volto with icy calculation. He kicks him in the broken wrist and Volto lets out an ear-piercing screech. Mr. Blackbourne is the better fighter, and he lands a crushing blow to the same wrist, causing it to hang at an unnatural angle. I hear a hissing sound and time seems to stop.
Volto looks up and sees the gas streaming in from the vent. He ducks away from Mr. Blackbourne and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out what looks like a detonator and grins at me. "And so it ends, my little dolly".
Infinity stretches inside of this second as his thumb descends on the switch. I can see that Mr. Blackbourne deciphers it at the same instant that I do. He's got a bomb, and we're all about to die. I realize that this is the last time I'll see any of my boys, and a tear slips down my cheek. If this is my final moment on earth, I want to let myself feel what it's like to love them just once. I drop down my last barrier and open my heart completely to them. My boys. Mine. I'll miss them. I lock eyes with Owen and let him feel it too. His is the last face I'll ever see. There are worse ways to go.
In this last breath I finally understand some of their secretive eye-talk. His are screaming at me that this won't be the end. That he doesn't want to lose me. I get it, at last. Family. I don't want to lose him either. I wish that I could have saved them all.
He runs toward me faster than I could have ever imagined possible, cradling me into his embrace as the bomb explodes. Shielding me with his own body. As I feel the concussion from the blast overtake us I hear him whisper into my ear, "I've got you, Love."
The air is sucked from my lungs and everything becomes nothing as the inferno enfolds us.
***